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Fantasy Round 9 Review: The Kings triumph in NSW

Matt Faddes had a blinder for the Highlanders during their thrashing of the Sunwolves.

It is fair to say that we were on the money with our roughie Matt Faddes in last weeks Stock Market. The Highlanders’ centre, who has been biding his time on the bench, took his chances against the Sunwolves this weekend. During his 80 minute showing he managed to bag himself a brace of tries while running in 184 metres in a player of the round performance.

If you followed the go-to technique of picking up players versing the Kings, Sunwolves or Rebels this week, you would have been disappointed. With Faddes the only player from the Waratahs, Highlanders or Sharks to make the Team Of The Week. To throw another spanner in the works, 2 Kings players and 2 Sunwolves players managed to make the cut.

The Hurricanes put on another powerful performance with stalwart Beauden Barrett(85 points) and youngster Vince Aso (77 points) leading the way for the boys from Wellington as they ran over the Brumbies 56-21. A number of players scored between 40-50 points for the ACT based side, however nobody stood up and asserted themselves into the game.

Mike Willemse put in a good showing for the Kings as they toppled the Waratahs away from home.

Mike Willemse(65 points), Berton Klaasen (51 points), Masixole Banda (52 points) all scored at least half centuries in their historic win over the Waratahs. Bernard Foley (55 points) was the only man from NSW to achieve the same feat for the men in blue.

Matt Faddes(100 points) led the way for the Highlanders in their win over the Sunwolves, however Malakai Fekitoa(56 points) also played a big impact. South African Willie Britz (71 points) and Australian Jamie- Jerry Taulagi(51 points) played well for the Japanese based side.

The Crusaders’ side posted the most 50+ scores with David Havili (68 points), George Bridge(64 points), Richie Mo’unga (55 points), Codie Taylor(52 points) and Kieran Reid(50 points). While only Cheslin Kolbe(53 points) fell in the same bracket for the Stormers during their loss to the Crusaders.

During the Force’s loss to the Chiefs neither side had many players who posted high scores. The eveready battery Damian McKenzie posted 60 points for the Chiefs, while the hard working Matt Hodgson scored 55 points for the Force.

A red card for André Esterhuizen was only worsened by Nic Stirzaker who received both a yellow and a red card on his way to potentially the worst fantasy score of all time.

Niel Marais (55 points) from the Cheetahs was the only man to score over 50 points during the low scoring South African derby between the Bulls and Cheetahs.

No tries were scored in the 9 all draw between the Sharks and Rebels and similarly nobody posted high scores. On the other hand we may have seen some of the worst fantasy scored ever recorded, with both André Esterhuizen (-20 points) and Nic Stirzaker(-35 points) leaving their fantasy coaches not angry… just disappointed.